Alex Batty was just 11 years old when he went missing on what was supposed to be a two-week holiday to Spain with his mother and grandfather. In reality, he was forced to live off-grid with his mother's spiritual and anti-establishment friends for six years. Now, in a new BBC documentary, he reveals the truth of what really happened.
The Beginning of the Ordeal
When Alex Batty was 10 years old, his grandmother Susan became his legal guardian. His mother Melanie, a law graduate who never worked in the field, was a conspiracy theorist who had become so anti-establishment and anti-government that she no longer believed in giving Alex a proper education. "Melanie didn't believe in school anymore, but I did," Susan tells the BBC, explaining that was her motivation in applying to be Alex's guardian – something Melanie fought. "She just hated me for stealing her son."
Alex lived with Susan in Oldham from the age of eight until he was 11, when Melanie asked if she could take him on holiday to Spain for two weeks, along with her father David, Susan's ex-husband. After Alex begged to be allowed to go, Susan eventually agreed. She had no idea that would be the last time she'd see her grandson for six years, until he managed to leave his mum and grandfather to come home to the UK.
Life on the Run
When Alex was taken to Spain aged 11, he initially experienced the holiday he was promised: staying at a beautiful villa in Marbella, swimming in the private pool, and visiting the beach. Even when his mum and grandad asked him to put his phone and passport in a bin, he felt "like James Bond". The severity of what was happening only kicked in a few months later, when they moved to a small town in Spain, living off-grid with people his mum knew who were as spiritual and anti-establishment as both her and her father, who held similar views.
Back home, news headlines spoke about his abduction, with the police treating the case as "high-risk". His grandmother was devastated, experiencing what she now labels "ambiguous loss – they're not dead but they've gone out of your life. I was crying all the time, just depressed." Alex didn't fully understand the situation. "My mum and granddad told me it was classified as kidnapping, but it isn't because she's my mum," he says now. "Because I'd done what I'd done… I thought my grandma wouldn't love me anymore."
Years of Isolation
It was his belief that his grandma wouldn't want him – along with the fear that his mum and grandad could be arrested – that stopped Alex from seeking help. He stayed living in Spain for two years, isolated in a community away from children his own age, desperately missing school. When Alex finally told his mum how he felt, she moved them to an apartment in Villalonga, a small mountain town south of Valencia, so he could be around people his own age. But Covid struck, leaving them even more isolated during lockdown.
In 2021, his mum moved him to France to live in the Pyrenees. They found a couple to live with for free, in exchange for Alex and his grandad working on their property, doing construction and working in the garden. When Alex's mum moved out to a campervan nearby, he and his grandad would regularly visit her to bring her money and food supplies. "I was made to work at 14 and she was perfectly healthy to work and never did," says Alex now. "I'd always think about where I'd be if I was in England, with my friends in high school. Having a normal high school experience."
Escape and Aftermath
In 2022, Alex and his grandad joined his mum living on the campsite. Money was tight, and his mum began pressuring him to "do spiritual work" and "inner work", making him watch videos with "extreme opinions". She spent much of her time online, speaking to people who had similar views to hers. A friend of his mum's tells Alex those people guided her, enforcing ideas on her that she felt she had to enforce on Alex and her grandad – it felt like a "sect or cult".
"When I was 15, I started really thinking for myself," explains Alex. "So, I'd try and find my own answers and when I did, if they differed in any way it would start a row. It was constant battles, constant arguments, constant yelling. So, she kicked me out of her campervan." He ended up staying in a tent from September until March during the cold winter, while his mum lived in a spacious campervan with heating, water and electricity, and his grandad was nearby in a small caravan.
Alex was 17 when he finally left his mum and grandfather. At this point, he'd been working in various people's farms and houses, and was exhausted, wishing he were in college instead of "stuck on a mountain in France". Arguments with his mum had increased, to the point where she told him he'd "become an appalling person". That was when Alex decided to finally sneak out in the middle of the night, walk for miles, and eventually tell a passing driver: "I've been kidnapped."
Life Today
Today, Alex lives with his grandmother, has passed his Maths and English GCSEs and is currently looking for work. This January he also became a father to a baby girl. He isn't in contact with his mum or grandfather – both of whom declined to comment on the documentary – but lied to the police after his return to the UK to ensure they wouldn't be caught. The police eventually dropped their investigation into the alleged child abduction last year as the family did not support it and there was "no realistic chance of prosecution".
Speaking on his relationship with his mum today, Alex says: "My relationship with my mum is such a complicated thing. I'm annoyed at what she did... the experiences I missed out on, my lack of education. But speaking to all these people about my mum opened up my eyes to why she did what she did. This entire trip has reconnected me to my mum and grandad and made me want to build that bridge again."
'Kidnapped By My Mum' is on BBC Three at 9pm and BBC One at 10.40pm on Wednesday 13 May. It will also be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
